The present invention relates to a method and a device for producing and testing composite systems.
The discovery and development of new substances and materials is a primary goal of the material sciences, of chemistry and the science of pharmacology. However, the search for suitable compounds is often very costly and time-consuming. To be able to conduct this search more effectively and inexpensively, a systematic methodology, which has become known as “combinatory chemistry”, was introduced in the pharmaceutical and then also in other application fields quite a few years ago. Here, several potentially interesting compounds are produced and analyzed quasi in parallel. The advantage of this method is that it allows automation, so that high processing speeds are possible in a minimum of time.
The basis of this method is the use of substrates on which a multitude of chemical compounds that may possibly have a useful property are applied spatially separate from each other. In some cases the production of such substrates constitutes a challenge. For instance, if possible materials for electrodes are to be tested with the aid of a combinatory substrate, the corresponding electrodes are galvanically deposited by hand or anodically oxidized according to the deposition methods currently in use.
For each electrode material to be deposited, the entire substrate is immersed in a corresponding electroplating dip, the substrate is electrically contacted at least in the region of the electrode material to be deposited, and a sufficient quantity of the metallic electrode material is deposited by applying a corresponding galvanic voltage between substrate and electroplating dip. To obtain electrodes of the second type, anodic oxidation of the deposited electrode material in an appropriate metallic salt solution may be carried out in addition. In a final step, the substrate is taken out of the electroplating dip, and a rinsing operation is implemented. The number of the various electrode materials provided on a substrate is thus equal to the number of individual deposition operations that must be carried out.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a device that allow the production of local coatings on a substrate in an effective and thus inexpensive manner.